What is HTTPS? A Webmasters Guide to Creating a Secure On-Site Experience

What is HTTPS? A Webmasters Guide to Creating a Secure On-Site Experience

Introducing

What is HTTPS? This is a Webmasters Guide to Creating a Secure On-Site Experience

Having a secure website benefits both the user experience and search rankings. Discover what HTTPS is and how it might help your marketing.

Do you want to give your users a better secure experience while also improving your Google rankings? One approach to accomplish both of these goals is to encrypt your website using HTTPS. We’ll explain what HTTPS is, why you need it, and how to obtain it in this blog.

HTTP Vs HTTPS

HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. This protocol establishes the rules for web browsers to communicate with web servers at the application layer. It serves as the Internet’s communication foundation.

A user’s browser initiates HTTP requests. Web servers respond to the request with an HTTP response, which loads the web page using hypertext links.

Secure is denoted by the S in HTTPS. HTTPS encrypts data sent between web browsers and web servers.

How Does HTTPS Work

HTTPS is secured using SSL or TLS. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is the forerunner of Transport Layer Security (TLS).

The Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol ensures the privacy and integrity of data transmitted between two or more applications via encryption.

This protocol at the application layer aims to protect safe data flow from eavesdropping and tampering.

While the majority of websites still refer to safeguarding your site with HTTPS via SSL certificates, TLS is the contemporary implementation of SSL. Later in the blog, we’ll describe how to obtain this for your website.

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Why Use HTTPS

HTTPS protects websites from being injected with content without the owner’s knowledge. Without HTTPS, a malicious party could inject online advertisements, to profit from your web traffic.

According to HTTP Archive, around 92% of desktop and 91% of mobile requests originate from URLs with the HTTPS prefix. According to W3Techs, HTTPS is used by 75.7 percent of websites. 

It’s critical for two reasons that are unique to marketing. To begin, when users arrive at an HTTP website, browsers such as Google Chrome display the site’s address URL bar as Not Secure.

Unsecured Websites

Appear with a warning triangle next to the domain in mobile browsers.

Second, HTTPS can affect your search engine rating. Google said in 2014 that HTTPS would be included in the algorithm used to rank webpages in the Google search engine results.

Following HTTPS implementation for Google services, Google launched the project “HTTPS Everywhere” to encourage webmasters worldwide to follow suit.

HTTPS, How Secure is it?

HTTPS does not imply that a website is completely secure or error-free. HTTPS encrypts only communications between two computers, for example, between a user’s machine and a web server via a web browser.

While HTTPS provides greater security than HTTP, it does not prevent the user’s computer or the webserver from hacker or malware attacks.

This is why webmasters must secure their websites and users must protect their PCs against viruses and spyware.

How to Secure Your Website Using HTTPS

An SSL certificate may be required to add HTTPS to your website. However, first, consult the guidelines provided by your current web hosting provider regarding how to enable or enforce HTTPS. It may be already included in your existing hosting plan.

If this is not the case, you should be able to purchase a TLS/SSL certificate from your existing web host or switch to a new hosting plan that supports TLS/SSL.

Alternatively, content delivery networks might provide you with a TLS/SSL (CDNs)

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How to Convert HTTP to HTTPS Websites

The method through which you convert your website from HTTP to HTTPS is server-dependent. If your hosting control panel does not have an option to convert to or enforce HTTPS, you will need to redirect or rewrite your HTTP URLs to HTTPS.

You can get directions unique to your hosting provider by searching Google for the name of your hosting provider + HTTP to HTTPS. The majority of firms will have instructions pertaining to your hosting plan and web server on how to redirect.

Google also provides adequate guidance on how to convert from HTTP to HTTPS in the Advanced SEO section of Google Search Central. Additionally, they provide links to instructions for configuring Google Search Console for your HTTPS site.

Beyond SSL, How to Secure Your Website

Apart from HTTPS, there are various other techniques to safeguard your website. This is critical because Google can assess whether or not your website has been hacked or infected with malware.

Google may notify webmasters via Google Search Console and the Security Issues report if their sites have been compromised.

To begin safeguarding your website, begin by upgrading your passwords. Any service you use for your website – domain registrar, web host, control panel, or admin panel, for example – could provide an unauthorized user with an excessive amount of access to your website, leaving it vulnerable.

If you use the same password for numerous services, you may wish to change it to prevent an attack on one service from escalating to an attack on all of them.

Avoid Using

Your browser to keep your unique, safe passwords and instead use a more secure tool like 1Password or LastPass.

Following that, have a look at your site hosting service. Numerous providers provide programs that include enhanced security features. Consider preparations that include a security firewall, malware and virus scanning, DDoS protection, and automatic backups in the event of a disaster.

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MY FINAL THOUGHTS ON HTTPS

Obtaining and installing an SSL certificate is critical to ensuring that your audience has a secure experience. However, if you’re unsure where to obtain one or how to set one up, our experts at Oahu Webmasters can assist you. We can assist you with securing and maintaining your website.

We can assist you in maintaining the security of your website through our website maintenance services. With over 20 years of combined experience, you can trust our expertise.

Ready to secure your site? Or have any questions? please use this connection to contact us.